Hackers infiltrated the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and monitored email accounts of approximately 103 bank regulators for over a year, accessing around 150,000 sensitive messages. The attackers gained entry via an administrative account, allowing them to observe communications from senior officials, including those responsible for international banking and supervisory processes. The breach, detected in early 2025 after Microsoft flagged unusual behavior, has been described as a major security incident with potentially damaging consequences for public confidence in financial oversight.
While the OCC has not confirmed attribution, the incident mirrors recent state-sponsored espionage operations, including Chinese-linked intrusions into the U.S. Treasury and telecom networks. The compromised emails reportedly contained confidential assessments of the financial health of federally regulated institutions. Although OCC stated there’s no immediate impact on the financial sector, the scale and sensitivity of the breach have raised serious concerns, prompting notifications to Congress and CISA.